Grace Upon Grace

                                             John 1: 9-18

 

 

          Clement of Alexandria, one of the great second century church fathers, called John’s gospel the “spiritual” gospel. When you read all four gospels, you get a pretty good idea of what Clement meant. Matthew, Mark and Luke, called the synoptic gospels because they “see” more or less the same thing, make their case with genealogies and facts of Jesus’ mighty deeds and acts, along with parables of Jesus. John doesn’t do that. He doesn’t relate a single parable. He does talk about facts, but not in the same way. John is more concerned with the thread which connects the divinity of Jesus with the chance for eternal life for those who believe his story.

          John was Jesus’ first cousin. He and his brother James were fisherman in Galilee. They were part of the family business run by their father Zebedee. John is thought to have been the beloved disciple that the gospels, especially his, refer to. Tradition has it that he is the only disciple who died of natural causes. His gospel is thought to have been written some forty years after the resurrection. The other gospels predated John, and chances are he was familiar with them. Maybe that had something to do with how John chose to write his witness. It is a book dotted with 7 or 8 “I Am” statements, depending on how you count. It is also a book which brings a more spiritual approach to its witness. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word came and dwelt among us.” See what I mean. Now there’s a genealogy, all the way back to before creation.

          John knew Jesus as cousin, as disciple, as a member of Jesus’ inner circle, even as the caretaker of Jesus’ mother Mary after the death and resurrection. And he lived long, probably seventy years after Jesus’ death. John lived to see the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple. His gospel seems to talk about that in the way he describes Jesus as God’s living temple. God revealed himself to the people of Israel, manifesting himself to them in the desert in the tabernacle, a moveable nomadic dwelling place for his presence. When the people reached the Promised Land and made it their home, Jerusalem rose up and Solomon caused God’s temple to be built. So God’s people have known God’s presence in tabernacle and temple. With the coming of Jesus, John makes it clear that God has taken up residence in the incarnate presence of Jesus (and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us). The Greek word skenoo for “dwelt” means literally that God “pitched his tent.” So John, unlike the other evangelists, takes us beyond the facts and events to dialogue and to the metaphysical. Along the way, he uses the “I am” stories as his vehicles for the signage that points to the divinity and promise of salvation that Jesus brings.

          For me, the first eighteen verses of John’s gospel are among the most spell binding, the most revealing, of all scripture. I have always been attracted to the way John explains Jesus. We have those great lines about the Word that takes us from the beginning of creation all the way to the manger in Bethlehem. We also have a continuing comparison of Jesus to light; light as the light of men, light shining in the darkness, the true light. John will continue with this motif throughout his writings. But what caught my eye on this reading was something I had not seen clearly before. What caught my eye this time around was John’s allusion to Jesus as the image of God.

          How do you see God? John says what we all know, that no one has ever seen God. Oh yes, some have seen his presence, like the pillar of clouds that moved across the desert by day and the pillar of fire that hovered over the camp of  the people at night, or like Moses being practically blinded by the burning bush. Abraham was said to have walked with God, though nowhere does it say that he looked at him. God came to Adam and Eve in the garden, but it was his presence, not his person, that ministered to his creation. In his letter to the Romans, Paul told them that God’s attributes are clear enough to see all over his creation. But those are God’s attributes, not his person.

          And yet, as John tells us, God has been made known by Jesus. Jesus, God’s Son. Jesus; who is at the Father’s side. Later in the fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel, the disciple Phillip asks Jesus for a sign from the Father. Jesus answers him: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” No, we have not seen God the Father, but there were those who saw God the Son. And Jesus himself tells us that he is the image which we have longed to see.

          What is God’s image? If we look at Genesis 1, we see God making man (Heb.: Adam - mankind) in God’s (that is, the Trinitarian God) image and likeness. Here in John 1, John says that we have seen his glory. John could have meant a lot of things by that statement, from the Transfiguration to the Ascension to just plain seeing Jesus’ presence. But with John, he makes clear that he, John, has seen. He is an eyewitness to what he speaks.

          So what is God’s image? It is physical. It is spiritual. It is emotional. It is God in man, man in God. It is, according to John, glory as of the only Son from the Father. John and others saw that firsthand and John writes about it here. While we cannot see physically who John saw, we can see it spiritually. To do that, we would do well to try to capture the words from John. He calls Jesus full of grace and truth. But what does that mean?

          This has been quite a year in the United States. It has been a year in which everyone has struggled to see the truth. It is a year in which yet another new phrase has been coined to describe what is going on. Now we have to deal with “fake news.” It’s a new term, but an old idea. It used to be called propaganda. In John’s time it was called false teaching. So while the term is new, the idea has been with us for ages. John tells us a story as an eyewitness, and in the truth he tries to convey, he describes Jesus as full of grace and truth.

          Have you ever heard anyone other than Jesus described in such a way? I have grace, sometimes, but I’m sure not full of it. I make my life about telling the truth, but Jesus was full of truth. Now we can begin to see the image of God. It is full of grace and truth. If we could look at Jesus as John and his disciples did, we would both see and feel Jesus’ fullness. John says from that fullness we can all receive grace upon grace. Think about that. Grace is that unmerited, completely free, bestowing of forgiveness and assurance, acceptance. It cannot be earned. It is unconditional and given for the asking. And John says that Jesus gives those who believe grace upon grace. It’s sort of like getting a heaping helping of all your favorite things, then getting it again and again and again. The Psalmist knew something about grace upon grace when he wrote “my cup runneth over.”

          John goes on to emphasize what has happened with the coming of Jesus. Moses gave us the law. That is, through Moses, we were shown a basic set of rules. Don’t do this. Do that. We were given a set of definitions by which we could measure ourselves for society with each other and most notably with God. But what the law did most of all was to show us the fence. Anything outside of the fence was bad or dangerous or disobedient. Jesus both changed that and clarified that. This is John’s revelation shared with us, that Jesus was not about fences. He was all about making God’s true nature known. John says that through Jesus Christ, we were made acquainted with grace and truth. We were introduced to the image of God, and it is an image of love.

          Love is who God is, and love is what God looks like. That is the image of God and that is the image in which he made us. John tells us that when Jesus came and lived among us, those who saw him were privileged to see that image face to face. To see that image was to see grace and truth in action, in the flesh.

          That kind of vision came only once. Jesus lived among us and showed us the image of God. John saw that. He spent his life ministering to the truth of what he saw. While we do not have the physical presence of Jesus as John did, we do have the word and witness of John, the beloved disciple. John said Jesus made God known. Jesus lives not only in the words of the evangelist in Scripture, but in the Holy Spirit, whom he sent to us to guide and comfort us.

          Jesus has been called the image of the invisible God. But Jesus is also now invisible to the naked eye. Unless. Unless your vision is making use of the Holy Spirit. If you are there, then you don’t even need these words. You can already see. If you are not quite there, then keep reading. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you. Grace upon grace can be yours too.